PrEP to fight HIV now freely available at several sites
(List of sites where PrEP is available)
About 16 private and public health facilities are now offering PrEP to the general population. This is being done free of cost. This pre-exposure prophylaxis commonly called PrEP is medication that prevents HIV.
In an announcement on Friday, the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) said that after five years of its advocacy, PrEP is now available for free. The fact that PrEP is available free of cost has been described as “life changing” by SASOD’s Managing Director Joel Simpson, “We have seen in the major cities, with the advent of prep, they have halted new infections,” he told this publication.
“With the education around PrEP in the country that should be coming with these services and more widespread availability in the public health system where people who often need this service or can’t afford to pay for doctors, consultation fees to pay for blood test before they start PrEP,” Simpson explained, “now they don’t have that barrier, they don’t have that financial and economic burden as a barrier.”
Simpson said too that most times the persons who need these preventative methods are persons who have less financial resources.
“Done right, with the education and promotion, it [PrEP] should significantly halt new HIV infections in Guyana and that is what is so monumental about the provision of PreP for free through public and private sites in Guyana,” Simpson pointed out.
PrEP is for anyone who considers themselves at substantial risk for HIV. It is advised persons should seek their doctor’s guidance if they are considering PrEP or call the HIV hotline on 227-8683 for more details.
